iPhone SE booming sales in US lead to short supply

It's only been a week since Apple's iPhone SE hit retail shelves and existing stocks of the 4-inch handset are already disappearing like hot cakes!

In many Apple Stores in the United States, stocks of iPhone SE have run dry and the earliest delivery date for the next bunch has been pushed back to two weeks.

Apple iPhone SE's introduction to the smartphone market, unlike its flagship siblings, wasn't really a blockbuster. Missing were the long queues, nor were experts very optimistic about iPhone SE selling in the millions in the first week itself. But six days after its release, not only retail stores but network operators have also run out of in-store stocks of the gleaming new iPhone.

In New York, the Apple Store in Fifth Avenue has run out of iPhone SEs and is only taking pre-orders at the moment. To get an iPhone SE by April 20 to 25, a customer needs to pay extra for expedited delivery and if he doesn't pay that charge, he'll get his iPhone SE by April 27.

A quick browse through all carriers and retail stores in the US also suggest that the more expensive 64GB iPhone SE which costs $499 sold in larger numbers than the $399 16GB one. While the 16GB variant will be available on April 12, the larger storage variant isn't expected in most stores until April 20-27.

"As of Wednesday, the fastest a new iPhone SE will arrive from Apple in the U.S. is next Tuesday, April 12, and that’s just select models. Many models are unavailable until April 20, and that’s with paying extra for expedited shipping. Virtually all models with all carriers out of stock at Apple’s retail stores as well. AppleInsider conducted a check of a number of major markets in the U.S. and found in-store pickup was unavailable for virtually every model, though there was some sporadic availability of certain carrier, capacity and color combinations,” said AppleInsider.

Even in the UK, Apple has announced in its website that both 16GB and 64GB models will ship between April 22-27 if you place your order now.

Popular Apple-oriented website 9to5Mac ran two polls on iPhone SE, one just after the device was launched and the other after it went on sale and hands-on reviews were published. The website noted that while only 26 per cent of its readers wanted to buy iPhone SE just after it was launched, the number rose to 48 per cent after it went on sale.

"Straight after launch, approaching 16% of readers told us they were planning to upgrade from an older 4-inch phone, while just 10% were set to switch from a larger iPhone. But the numbers on Friday were very different: 25% of 4-inch owners, and an amazing 23% of owners of larger iPhones," said 9to5Mac.

A CNBC report also claimed that in China alone, Apple booked 3.4 million pre-orders for the iPhone SE which included 1.3 million and 1.2 million pre-orders for the Gold and Rose Gold colour variants respectively.

Running the latest iOS 9.3 operating system and sporting 16GB and 64GB variants, the 4-inch iPhone SE offers some of the latest features like Live Photos, Apple Pay and a 64-bit A9 chip along with a M9 co-processor to let you multi-task and perform your daily smartphone tasks easily.

iPhone SE also offers LTE speeds of up to 150 Mbps including Wi-Fi calling and Voice over LTE functionality and you can even run up your download speed to up to 433 Mbps over Wi-Fi.